Mark Halperin Calls Obama a ‘Dick’ on ‘Morning Joe’

Mark Halperin offered a very candid, and bleep-worthy, assessment of the president’s Wednesday press conference performance Thursday on “Morning Joe.”

“I think he was kind of a dick yesterday,” Halperin said, after first checking if the broadcast was on a 7-second delay to allow for correcting four-letter FCC violations.

“Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski encouraged Halperin to “go for it,”and go for it he did. The offending word was not bleeped. Scarborough and Brzezinski reacted with shock, Brzezinski clapping her hand over her mouth and both laughing.

Halperin apologized on air shortly after.

“Joking aside, this is an absolute apology. I shouldn’t have said it. I apologize to the president and the viewers who heard me say that,” he said.

UPDATE: Halperin “suspended indefinitely”

Statement from MSNBC:

Mark Halperin’s comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable. We apologize to the President, The White House and all of our viewers. We strive for a high level of discourse and comments like these have no place on our air. Therefore, Mark will be suspended indefinitely from his role as an analyst.

Statement from Mark Halperin:

I completely agree with everything in MSNBC’s statement about my remark. I believe that the step they are taking in response is totally appropriate.